


Remember

by fragilecapricornpanic



Series: Misc UA [5]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Diego Hargreeves is Bad at Feelings, Extra-Ordinary: My Life as Number Seven, Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Mush, Gen, Good Sibling Vanya Hargreeves, Humor, Missing Scene, No Incest, POV Alternating, Season/Series 02, Sibling Bonding, Soft Diego Hargreeves, Soft Vanya Hargreeves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 20:49:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28784460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragilecapricornpanic/pseuds/fragilecapricornpanic
Summary: One shot that takes place immediately after the shot of Diego and Vanya sitting together on the porch, in episode 10 of season 2. Sibling bonding :)
Relationships: Diego Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, The Hargreeves Family
Series: Misc UA [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2077887
Comments: 13
Kudos: 61





	Remember

**Author's Note:**

> Just to be clear I am NOT misgendering Elliot <3 please read the end notes for more info.
> 
> **The (subjective) POV switches between them both, depending on the paragraph**

For the first time in several years, Diego and Vanya felt like siblings. Like family. They sat in tranquil silence, enjoying the calmness that was growing increasingly more impossible for them to experience. It wouldn’t last long, they both knew that - but that was why it meant so much. 

“I didn’t do it to hurt you.” Vanya murmured, still resting her head on Diego. He had no idea what particular _”it”_ she was referring to. So much had happened, there were countless possibilities. Vanya had already apologized about the energy tentacles, it couldn’t be that.

Pulling his head away slightly, Diego looked across at Vanya. “Do what?” he gently asked, furrowing his brow. _Do what?_ Vanya was surprised to hear that, the book had been all Diego was capable of thinking of in their relationship for years. It drove an irreparable wedge between them, which could apparently only be budged by the world ending. Whilst Vanya wouldn’t go through this all again solely to rebuild a relationship with Diego, she was grateful for it.

“Extra-Ordinary...” Vanya explained with a slight wince, bashful to say the name aloud to one of the very people she had written about, one of the actual _extraordinary_. In response to hearing the book title, Diego abruptly paused fidgeting with a knife. That was worrying, Vanya felt herself becoming anxious; bringing this up may push Diego away again. Would it have been better to have just pretended the book never happened? That wasn’t how Vanya wanted to live anymore, she never wanted to act like that again.

Holy shit, Diego could not believe that he hadn’t instantly known she was talking about her book. He’d been so fixated on his hatred of it for so long, not having it in the forefront of his mind was staggering. That feeling was welcome. “I know you didn’t.” Diego drawled, starting to twiddle with a knife again. He somewhat understood now why Vanya had published her memoir, it was like a form of misguided therapy for her. Reacting with pure rage was thoughtless in hindsight, but it had hurt so bad to read those words. To know the world was reading them too. “I’m sorry, too. For... kinda being a dick.” 

That was the understatement of the century, though it still meant a lot to Vanya. “I forgive you.” Vanya whispered, resting back on Diego now she knew he wasn’t going to angrily storm away. “Do you think it’s kinda weird that Five’s still wearing his little uniform?” she jokingly asked, hoping to god that the clothes had been washed at some point during all of this chaos. The bowling shoes were gone though, and that was the most important thing. 

Thank god somebody finally said it, Diego couldn’t understand why Five hadn’t found new clothes. He could just spatial jump in and out of a store, shopping couldn’t be easier. Five was like a cartoon character, wearing the same outfit every single day. “Yeah, but imagine him in normal clothes.” Diego remarked with a grimace, for some reason weirded out by the idea of Five looking like a normal human being.

With a titter, Vanya grimaced too. “Like a hoodie?” she responded, making Diego chuckle. Vanya momentarily took her head from Diego to glance at his face, wanting to see if he looked equally as disturbed by this image. He did. In fact, he seemed arguably more unnerved by the concept of Five wearing a hoodie than she did. “From Hot Topic.” Vanya added, incredibly amused by imagining an emo Five. He’d completely missed out on that entire period.

“And jeans...” Diego gazed up at the sky, picturing Five dressed like an actual thirteen year old kid. It was funny as hell, but also slightly horrifying. “Skinny jeans.” he continued, recalling how teenagers dressed in 2019. Things were wildly different here in 1963, Diego had never seen so many hats in all of his life. Vanya groaned with amusement, playfully shoving Diego as revenge for making her consider that. The push was so weak due to her tiny stature, it was an unbelievable contrast to her power. “Remember when Luther threw him off the stairs?” Diego snickered at the fond memory from earlier that week.

That day had been a whirlwind of confusion for Vanya, she hadn’t truly known who these people were and the meeting had only made things more bewildering. Every sentence and movement was absurd. “You guys are really weird, from an outsider’s perspective.” she commented, deliberating over which sibling had seemed the most bizarre. Allison had seemed like the only normal one, up until Vanya found out that her sister was infatuated with their brother. Vanya had known she had a deep love for Allison, even before she remembered who she was. It just felt innate, more so than with her other siblings.

“Yeah, well, you’re not an outsider anymore. You’re weird too, sis.” In all actuality, Vanya was possibly the weirdest. She blew up the moon. Diego briefly shifted his head to look Vanya in the eye, giving her a smirk. She smiled back, though she was visibly overwhelmed by the magnitude of what that statement really meant. Vanya was no longer on the sidelines, that much had been made clear. They fell into silence again, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.

Taking a deep breath of the fresh air, Vanya reflected on her moment with their deceased brother. She wished it could’ve lasted longer, that it didn’t have to be his last goodbye. “I hugged Ben.”

“Shit, for real?!” Diego animatedly turned to fully face Vanya, almost sticking his hand out for a high-five before realising how dorky that was. She nodded, knitting her brow with bemusement. “Me too!”

The hurriedly stifled high-five was glaringly obvious, it made Vanya fight back laughter when Diego pretended to just be stretching his hand. How had those two possibly hugged, what had Vanya missed? “But he said it had been a long time since-“

“Technically it...” Diego trailed off, saddened by that quote from Ben. All of those years without one single hug, without anyone even knowing he was there. “Technically it was Klaus, but Ben was like... _inside_ of hi-“ Nope! That sounded goddamn awful. “Uh, possessing him, I guess.” It felt unfair that Diego’s siblings were seemingly gaining new powers left, right, and center. Where were his extras, did they get lost in the mail?

The knowledge that Klaus could be possessed was kind of scary, but that could be addressed at a literal later date. 2019. “He was wearing a leather jacket.” Vanya stated, feeling a little confused by it now that she was looking back. The moment had been far too traumatic for her to take any real notice of his clothes at the time.

“A leather jacket...” Diego thoughtfully drawled, struggling to picture Ben wearing something so cool. He was a gigantic nerd, in the best possible way. How the hell was he even wearing something different from the outfit he’d died in? How had he, as a ghost, travelled back to a time before he’d even died?

The leather jacket wasn’t even the most confusing part, Vanya wasn’t sure if Diego was ready for this bit. “Yeah, and he looked our age.”

“I _knew_ he looked older in Icarus!” Diego exclaimed, glad to have that confirmed. None of this made any sense, it was unbearable. It was like there were no rules or logic, only Klaus could have such a random power. “Thinking about Klaus’ power makes my head hurt.”

“I think it makes his head hurt too.” Vanya scoffed, going through too many emotions right now to try and comprehend the logistics of ghosts. On second thought... Vanya began to frantically count on her fingers, wishing Five were here to do the math in a split second. “Eighty five, eighty si- If Sissy’s dead by 2019, do you think he can get her for me?!” she eagerly questioned, astounded that she hadn’t thought of this before now. Now that Vanya had recovered her memory, it was still hard to think of Klaus being able to use his power.

Completely unsure, Diego could only shrug as his response. “Do you remember when we were kids we made him try to conjure Joseph Stalin to help us with our history homework?” Diego reminisced with a slight grin, relieved that the conjuring had been unsuccessful. They probably should’ve thought that idea through a little more. Dad would’ve lost his shit if he’d found out they’d tried to bring Joseph Stalin into the academy, even in ghost form.

Vanya remembered that all too well. “Yeah, and then you guys got mad at me for being Russian and not knowing everything about the USSR.” she muttered, still holding on to some resentment. The incident was admittedly funny in retrospect, but at the time it had felt crushing and isolating. Nobody else was expected to just inherently know things about their birth country. Diego’s grin immediately fell, once again stopping the spinning of his knife. It was jarring to see how unaware they’d all been of how they’d made Vanya feel.

“I’m sorry.” Diego kept his sentence to two words, sensing that his stutter would make an unwelcome appearance if he continued.

Frequently hearing apologies rather than saying them was new for Vanya, she appreciated it. “It’s okay, we were kids.” Vanya snickered, letting go of the hurt attached to those memories. Diego heavily breathed out, as if he’d been holding his breath whilst worrying about how she’d respond. He wasn’t worried due to his fear of her power, it was out of love. That was clear. “Do you really think we can go back to 2019?” Shockingly, Vanya _wanted_ to go back, to be stuck with her family forever. She’d prefer to bring Sissy and Harlan, that sadly wasn’t possible though.

After being in the commission, Diego felt certain that they’d easily be able to go right back to where they left off. Plus, it worked in Back to the Future. “Yeah, I’ve seen that shit from the inside.” he cockily bragged, as if he’d been an employee there for longer than an hour. Vanya didn’t look at all convinced, sceptically quirking an eyebrow. “Trust me, we’re good.” Diego confidently assured her, playfully bumping shoulders. If it worked for Marty McFly, it would work for them.

**Author's Note:**

> Copied from an earlier fic: 
> 
> If I find/write any more pre-canon/missing scene fics including Vanya, written from their subjective POVs, I will refer to Vanya as we met her in the series (she/her). Obviously Vanya is a character and is separate from Elliot, and we don’t yet know how he is going to approach playing Vanya in season 3. Gender bending happens a lot in acting, so it’s up to what Elliot feels they are comfortable with doing ❤️ I’m excited to see how the show adapts, if it does. So as far as we know _right now_ , Vanya uses she/her. I just want to keep things canon compliant when writing pre-canon/in canon, though I would of course always always use Elliot's correct pronouns and name, as they are separate to Vanya. Obviously I’m a fan of the actors (Elliot in particular lol) but I write fics with the _characters_ in mind, rather than the actors :)


End file.
